Fundraiser will benefit scholarship fund in honor of former Maynard High graduate

Sunday

Apr 22, 2018 at 8:08 AMApr 22, 2018 at 8:08 AM

Holly Camero hcamero@wickedlocal.com @BeaconVillager

Thomas Schuler is very proud that his daughter was a mechanical engineer who designed gears for submarines.

He described how those gears were about 10 feet tall and designed so the enemy couldn’t determine the location of a submarine. He spoke of how she later worked at a company designing printing presses, and was in charge of the research and development department there, supervising about 100 employees.

She could also change the oil and spark plugs in her car, he said.

According to family members, his daughter, Laura Schuler Cossette, excelled in the field of mechanical engineering. She was also a kind, compassionate and intelligent woman, who loved her family and was fun to be around.

“She was truly amazing. She always had a smile. She had laughing eyes. She was fun. She loved to dance,” said her mother, Barbara Schuler.

Cossette died on April 6, 2017, 10 months after being diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, but her legacy will live on in the Laura Schuler Cossette Charitable Fund.

The fund will support scholarships for young women entering a college program in a STEM field, with a preference for engineering. The first scholarship will be for $2,500 and will go to a young woman graduating from Maynard High School and entering the field of science or technology.

A fundraiser to raise money for the LSC Charitable Fund will be held Saturday, April 21, at Maynard Lodge of Elks, 34 Powder Mill Road in Maynard. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25 and include snacks and appetizers and a live performance by The Groove Street Band. The event will feature live and silent auctions, a 50/50 raffle and a cash bar.

A tendency to help

Helping others was second nature to Cossette, so establishing a fund in her name to help others, seemed fitting.

“She was someone who genuinely wanted to do things to help others,” said her step-daughter Melissa Cossette. “Some people do it because it’s an obligation, but she went out of her way and wanted to help. She always was just very willing to put in the time – even when she had so many things going on and so many things to do.”

Cossette graduated from Maynard High in 1980 and attended Southeastern Mass University in Dartmouth (now known as UMass Dartmouth), earning a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1987, she married Kenneth Cossette, also a Maynard High graduate. They lived in New Hampshire, but remained tied to Maynard, as both sets of parents as well as many cousins, aunts and uncles raised their families in Maynard.

Helping women

When considering a charitable fund, Jean Garlisi, Laura’s cousin, said the family wanted to do something a little different.

“A lot of us have done a lot of cancer fundraisers,” she said, “but we all felt like we didn’t want to do the typical cancer fundraiser type of thing. [Laura] felt pretty strongly about women’s issues.”

Garlisi said it was Kenneth who first came up with the idea of raising money to benefit women in engineering. So they partnered with the Society of Women Engineers of Southern New Hampshire, a charitable, nonprofit organization, to establish the fund.

Cossette was the only woman in her engineering classes at college, said Schuler, and she knew firsthand the challenges women face in the field, so a fund to support women in engineering was a natural fit.

She cared deeply about women’s issues, Garlisi said.

“The women in the family spent a lot of time together talking about women’s issues,” Garlisi said.

They were also aware that very few women enter STEM-related fields.

“As a family, everyone feels very strongly about this particular topic, so this resonated with everybody,” said Garlisi. “We want to have an impact (and) we want to benefit the community Laura grew up in.”

They are still working out the details, but say their goal is to offer scholarships or science outreach programs to local students every year and they are hoping for a good turnout at the fundraiser.

“We want to have people enjoy what she enjoyed, but we also want to do something that will draw people in,” said Barbara Schuler, about the upcoming fundraiser. “She would have loved it.”